Early Childhood Seminars
Our Seminars
Our workshops and seminars are conducted in all States and Territories across Australia and New Zealand including regional areas.
Visions of Creativity
In this whole day presentation, [5 hours]. Joy will take participants on a ride through Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligence and at each stop she will provide experiences and delights that will show how we can think 8 ways and be creative with young children.
The voices of children tell me they are capable, competent and creative and yet the push down from High school, to Primary school to Infant’s school to Early Childhood Programmes in preschools and long day care centres continues to happen. The future of our planet, our country, our community, the cure for cancer and AIDS, lies not in compliance, being able to colour in between the lines, or parrot back the ABC, it lies in being able to think outside the square. Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity has just been proven as being correct 90 years after he imagined the concept. I think he was right also when he said “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. Let’s defend creativity, imagination, and enchantment!
This day will affirm, at times challenge but encourage and enthuse those already on the creativity journey, co-constructing an emergent curriculum with young children. For beginners it will open eyes and hopefully hearts to the possibilities.
Planning for Provisions, Provocations and Possibilities: Working Within The Early Years Learning Framework.
This can be either a half-day /evening or a full day depending on the time available.
There have been many challenges and delights in recent years for those of us who work with children under five in all the different settings we find ourselves in. The most recent challenge is The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia, Belonging, Being and Becoming. Early Childhood has come a long way in recent years as our society has developed.
Joy began to wonder about all the questions people have been asked in workshops or by email and this presentation answers as many of these as she can in fit into a workshop. A new publication of the same name will be available in January 2010 and goes into more depth.
In an Emergent Curriculum, Australian style with influences from Reggio Emilia, we don’t just make an inviting environment and then sit back sipping coffee while the children plan. We are intentional, we do plan, but we plan for the possible, we are alert for the moments when we can provoke children’s discoveries and explorations.
In this workshop Joy will take participants on a ‘joyful’ and informative learning journey into the provisions, provocations and possibilities that present themselves. She will stress a play-based environment that encourages wondering. She encourages participants to find ways to co-construct a curriculum that emerges from a child or children in a learning community with caring adults and families. Of course, she will include examples of how we document learning stories and how we can demonstrate their connection to The Early Years Learning Framework.
Anna: Perhaps they didn't get up yet... or maybe they are sick and staying in bed.
The adult poses the same question to older children and John explains his theory. "Well the wind sweeps all the clouds together and the sun sucks them up like a vacuum cleaner".
From Observation to Reflection:
Telling and using the Learning Story
This can be either 2.5 or 5 hour presentation, depending on the time available.
It begins with a short look at the evolution of human thought over the last 100 years in particular and how this is reflected in our current practice in an emergent style, using a post-modern approach. This workshop includes provocations from Carlina Rinaldi, Loris Malaguzzi, Janet Robertson and Gunilla Dahlberg in an Australian context. Joy will ask participants to not only examine their Image of the Child but also they are in the lives of a young child.
Digital photography, journals and portfolio are becoming popular, yet for many of us, we are just translating old methods to new surroundings. How can we creatively record what we do and how can we share our ideas with families? We'll look at 
ethics, privacy, having a life of our own and some of the ideals and realities.
“Do you think the dolly’s would like some fresh bread from the bakers shop?” The children wait for the adult to add some ‘imaginary’ bread rolls to their play. The adult says, “mmm, I love the smell of fresh bread when it’s still hot from the oven”. At morning tea a little later we notice the children comment about the smell of oranges, and apples. They have taken the idea suggested during play to a new situation.
Joy takes some meaningful quotes from the above writers and examines in depth with Power Point presentation pictures and respectful stories using examples from the classroom.
It is reflective, challenging and practical with real examples of ways to tell the learning story and let the developmental and QIAS stories ride for free. Practitioners will find the ideas from this presentation real and doable.
Joy will use her recent publication From Observation to Reflection: A Practitioner’s Guide to Programme Planning and Documentation in particular to support an investigation of journals, portfolios and the requirements of QIAS.
A Bucket full of Ideas: [in two parts]
Part one - Practical ideas to stimulate visual, maths / logical, linguistic / literacy intelligence and creativity in young children. Allow at least 2.5 hours.
Part two - Practical ideas to stimulate kinaesthetic, naturalist, musical / rhythmic intelligence and creativity in young children. Allow at least 2.5 hours.
Telling Stories with Music
Music has an enormous potential for story telling with young children. It assists dramatisations of favourite stories in picture book form. Joy will share some favourites, and involve participants fully. ‘Sometimes we need to be loud’ says Joy “and sometimes we need to be very, very quiet, either way we need to use our voices effectively”. Joy will share simple ideas to make a puppet screen and puppets and how to use them to tell stories and explore other creative ideas.
This workshop of about 2.5 hrs will explore music from the classics, popular music, jazz, blues and a little country as well.
Play, Dance, Sing: Being Emergent with Music, Movement, Maths, Merriment and Mayhem
This is a 2.5 hour frolic through percussion instruments, movement and music that follows children's interests in an emergent way. This really is music for the non-musician, encouraging participants to find their confidence and imagine possibilities. If you have a parachute it would add to this presentation. We will need a range of percussion instruments and a clear space to dance!
Planning with Imagination
This is a 5-hour presentation in three parts, the philosophy behind the ideas, followed by the practice and ending with recording/documenting.
“Imagination is greater than knowledge,” says Albert Einstein. Our centres should be a safe haven for imagination to flourish and yet we often restrict children's learning in our endeavour to ‘control’. What else can we do? We will use Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence as a framework for the presentation, this means we will draw, talk, tell jokes, sing, dance, think, solve problems, experiment, remember and share.
And some days we'll speak Italian
This is a 5 hour presentation that is built around the ideas from Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences in the context of the Emergent Curriculum, ideas from Reggio Emilia and the NSW Curriculum Framework. It's divided into 8 parts with practical examples and experiences, and lots of fun and laughter. This is the workshop from which Visions of Creativity was conceived and brought to reality. A Visions workshop is slightly different , a range of different real life stories, examples and ideas.
From Image to Practice
This is a 2.5 hour presentation that takes a reflective look at what we say and what we do. Joy uses stories and pictures to illustrate examples of ideas and challenges.
“I am wondering about our image of play or of ourselves as guides and leaders as well as how we see children” says Joy, “I also wonder about the kinds of butterflies that emerge from egg-carton caterpillars!”
Defending Play - The research and our practice
About 2.5 hours. There is a mountain of recent research that defends the use of play based learning with younger children. This is where they learn early literacy, by playing and talking with their peers. This is where they learn basic maths concepts as well but this is where they learn to regulate themselves in pro-social ways with other children. This is where relationships flourish with other children and even more importantly with caring adults. These latter factors are the most essential elements of a readiness for or transition to school programme. Let's look at the research and then strengthen our resolve to encourage independent, self chosen as well as adult initiated play. "When we have all our staff on the same page miracles can happen."
Blocks and tracks and stuff like that: Maths with real objects
This presentation is 2.5 hours and very hands-on. We have an abundance of materials available to us in our centres and yet much of it is either unused or underused. How can we use blocks and tracks to better advantage or ideas for play dough and or clay and lots more? Maths is much more than counting; it's a way of thinking. “Often we have not experienced the equipment ourselves as children and so do not appreciate the possibilities...let's extend the possibilities”, says Joy.
Hint: A local centre or preschool that will provide materials and equipment for us to use during the workshop. This works really well.
Maths and art materials
This is a 2.5 hour presentation and explores the use of everyday art materials in a mathematical and interesting way. It's much more than counting, it's also about shape and colour and design, it's about space and balance and artistic expression, it's also about patterns. “Patterns form the basis for most of our maths concepts, let's look for them” says Joy. Lots of hands-on stuff, some music [of course] and heaps of fun. Not a stencil or paper plate in sight!
Hint: Some black plastic on the floor under tables and a helpful local centre or preschool that can supply materials make this workshop possible and terrific fun.
More than a week in China: cultural diversity in context
This is a 2.5 hour presentation about cultural diversity. Rather than taking a tourist approach, how can we bring the world into our classrooms? Joy will bring ideas and artifacts to share.
We'll sing, dance, read stories, and think about being a citizen of the world. “Thinking about peace? Let's begin with ourselves”.
Stories, storytelling and shadow puppets
This is a 2.5 hour presentation that demonstrates ways to improve the way we use stories. During the session participants will make some characters for a story. Joy will supply templates by email to the hosts for distribution to participants. We will cut and paste, laminate and then tell stories using the characters.
Pancakes and Red Buckets.
2.5 hours of frolicking through the ideas supporting an Emergent Curriculum. Joy tells of children making pancakes and then looks where this might lead, science, maths, literacy and language as well as cultural diversity to name a few. Then she will look at stories about several young children playing with a red bucket, learning to turn over and another child who knows about all kinds of connections. Often this workshop is combined into an all day version along with From Observation to Reflection: Telling and Using the Learning Story, but it is also works as a standalone presentation.
Are we nearly there yet?
This takes about 2.5 hours. Joy will ask participants to look at what they are doing and ask questions, talk about the issues and problems they are having. She’ll workshop ideas that may help the journey, using her own stories as well as the suggestions from other participants. It's very real, often funny and very informative for those already on the documentation journey and those just beginning.
Capable, competent and creative children. What does this mean in practice?
The post-modern, critical reflection, emergent approach is to look at knowledge, strengths and capabilities of children and programme around these elements rather than offer a remedial style programme. This present some challenges to the way we write the programme, to what we provide and how we provoke learning,
through to the way we critically reflect rather than evaluate. Very practical solutions are offered to some old dilemmas and participants are challenged to consider what they do and how they do it, 2.5 Hours.
Under Three’s: Provoking, planning and providing for possibilities
This topic covers a range of topics particular to the younger child. Using everyday materials to create simple games, the importance of interaction, using and developing a sense of humour with as child. We will look at a series of pictures and reflect on how this idea might appeal to us and of course there is time for some interesting dancing! 2.5 Hours
Joy offers on-line contact and support to all levels of the early childhood industry.